Actually an ephemeral pond (meaning it will dry up during summer) is actually still pretty good for some wildlife like common toads for instance. So even if it does not retain water throughout the year you have still got an amazing hub for wildlife right there

My father had 3 ponds that we raised fish in. They didn’t have liners but were fed from natural springs so water always stayed at high levels. Loved the time when the frogs were in their mating season. We would keep our windows open to listen and fall asleep to their wonderful sounds.

I once read something about natural ponds in southern England which form over winter through spring, and then dry up over summer; they have their own ecosystem that has built up around what that offers instead of a continuous pond.

I love that you brought in the tadpoles. I also love that you are truthful about your pond experience. Ty Charles.

From a muddy puddle to a pond , and now a mini lake . Very impressive Charles , great job , the local wildlife will be very grateful to you .

I get the impression Charles wouldn't have gone this far with no dig if he didn't know how to enjoy the process of learning and discovery. I hope he can find that same joy embracing the journey towards a more permanent no plastic pond. As others have said, vernal ponds are precious wildlife resources of their own, so this pond is already a wonderful resource for wildlife.

We have had a similar experience with our natural pond, except we gave up in the Spring and decided to turn it into a sunken wild flower meadow instead due to it being so dried up (& hosting a wedding next to it so needed it to look pretty)... only for it now to absolutely full of water again thanks to all that Somerset rain😂

I agree there is something good about the natural interaction of water with soil beneath. I have just been learning about Betonite clay through Geoff Lawton. So glad you have too. 👍

As a roofer, Id say you need a base of damaged clay pots (or old broken up clay or even slate roofing tile) and about 4" thick of the bentonite clay over the entire surface. The bentonite clay will stick to the clay pottery really well.

There’s something kind of magical about water, even a small pond. If you build it, the critters will come. Thanks for the update, Charles, and here’s hoping the pond seals and holds water.

Patience and persistence, both qualities you seem to have in abundance. What an inspiration. No doubt you will be rewarded for your efforts.

Podoba mi się ten pomysł. Jest Pan człowiekiem pełnym życia, radości. Lubię oglądać Pana filmy i czerpać pozytywną energię . Pozdrawiam serdecznie.

If I had a big enough piece of land I would want a big pond too for all the reasons you do plus it would give me a water view. Like many others, I find water to be incredibly zen. At my previous house I was lucky to have a creek behind my house block. All my neighbours had huge high wooden fences, but I took mine down. Not only did it make my block look 3 times bigger and give me a great view of the creek, it allowed the wildlife to move more freely and I got way more breeze into my home. I live in the desert now, and a pond is not practical so all I have is a big bird bath. 😊

Love your closing sentence

No Liner! its the only way to go! beautifal pond

What a wonderful project to follow, I wish you well for the pond in the future. There is nothing like having a natural feature such as this on your land. The benefits to you as well as the local wildlife are immeasurable.

Thank you for all the great work you are doing. One of the big issues with the clay layer is that it cracks when it dries. Those cracks act like little drains. Keeping it protected can work wonders. What has worked in many cases is having a sealed clay layer and adding 30-50cm of soil on top. It acts like an insulation to protect the clay from drying and cracking. If you want to increase your chances of success, you can compact the clay layer further before adding soil on top. This should be done with compacting machinery to close gaps between clay particles. Additionally, you could look at the elevation profile of your land and add more slightly sloped ditches to fill the pond during rain events. If all else fails, you can still be proud of yourself for slowing erosion and refilling the groundwater table 💚💙

Just stop calling it a pond and start calling it a wadi! Though I understand your frustrations, there is something really wholesome about your pond following the seasons. And in its current state, it's still helping wildlife tremendously. Thanks for this honest video! :)

I have a one acre natural pond. I have heavy clay soil which holds the water in. Frogs, fish, and snapping turtles in mine. The blue cranes love it!

I like this. Once I was spooked by a toad during a very hot summer day, all grounds are dry, so there wasn’t any water retaining puddles in the garden, yet it found its way to moisture (from me watering plants). Nature is truly incredible and resilient!

We popped an old fish tank into the garden and it now has a regular family of frogs 🐸 every year. Such a joy in a small garden.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us again sir and I hope that your pond will remain this year and I understand why you want a pond for the wildlife in your area I have been around wildlife for many years and have come to appreciate it more now than ever before.

I am looking to create a plastic-free pond myself so it was wonderful to watch your video. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and your passion for wildlife!

I understand your desire for the no liner pond and wish you luck. I dug a small one last fall without a liner that is about 3ft. deep and will hold 2 ft. of water where there is more clay and the it's compacted more. Heavy rain will bring the level completely up to the grass but will absorb back into the topsoil when it's dry. I dug it to put the goldfish I use in a rainwater collection tank I use to water the garden. The best thing I did was collecting some plants and a piece of driftwood with algae to put in it from a local river. I was feeding the goldfish when it was warm enough for them to come to the surface, but then winter covered it with ice for a few weeks. When it thawed I thought the fish would be hungry but they were noticeably larger, so I believe the driftwood with algae provided enough biology to keep them well fed. I no longer feed them and they are growing and mating like crazy so I expanded it. I believe I will be expanding it more and more over the years but I love it. Maybe you should try finding rocks or driftwood with algae to put in your pond.

Being natural with no liner seems to correct itself over time.

Give it as much time as it needs and you'll make it permanent and naturally sealed. Super to see it looking better than October 😊

I love this. It’s such a lovely thing to being to the area. Brings back such fond childhood memories of our ephemeral pond - catching pollywogs and watching birds, coyotes and raccoons visit it! Good job.

Ancient Slav technology in creating ponds was lining the hole with a few inches of horse manure, then they waited for it to turn slight greenish hew, and fill the pond with water. Can't really atest to it, though. Buy or rent some ducks. Their manure performs the same function.

Very inspiring Charles. I have a hard enough time keeping water in my 10sq foot water fountain in the middle of my flower bed. I too do it for the wildlife. Seems like I get more frogs and snakes in the years I keep it consistently filled.

A great project and I have built many ponds over the years. If yours ever dries out again, it may be worth digging and installing a small butyl liner in the middle. A sort of pond within a pond. This will afford any fish, amphibians, reptiles, etc, a wet sanctuary, if it were ever to happen again in the future. I look forward to see it's progress.

Love the idea and what you are doing. Looking foward for development on the pond🙂

There is something incredible about ponds in the garden. We added a toad pond last year and had tadpoles in our first year

As long as you have the gravel you will never get it to hold with that small amount of Benit you need about a ton. Given enough bentonite I can make a pond dug in sand hold and have in Arizona. Some ponds we put up to 10 tons in and used a farm disk to incorporate

Yay! Finally. Whatever it turns out to be, its done and its wonderful.

My sister bought a property here in VT USA. It had this beautiful stream coming down from the mountain in the spring. We were all so excited, but it inevitably dried up over the summer. It came back just before it started to freeze up. It will be enjoyable when it flows.

I’ve been following this project here and on instagram Charles and finding the whole thing fascinating, so thanks for that. Sometimes over years these hollows cure themselves. Glad your avoiding the liner stunt, nasty stuff. Good luck

The same problem here in Wales. We get most of the year's rain in the winter season, even our lawns are waterlogged, that is why we have raised beds for our crops. In the summer, we lose a lot of our pond water. We do have pond liners on our 2 small ponds - they are raised slightly above ground level with rocks holding it into place. You have dug deep to get natural surrounding rain flow into your pond; What ever you do - Do not add pond liners in your case as the next rainy season will lift the liner to the surface unless you hold it down with heavy rocks around the edge of the pond under water - We're been there.

Glad to see the use of the bentonite. I think it’ll be your best chance of a natural pond. Thank you for the update!

Really awesome concept. Thanks for sharing the process

I admire your tenacity Charles. If all else fails could a compromise be an option? To make the very centre of the pond deeper and use a liner. That way you will have a refuge for pond life in droughts while minimising butyl plastic use. Not that I am against using modern materials sensitively mind you. Thanks again

I think if you give it some time it will build up more fine silt and clay giving it better water seal each year.

Seasonal ponds are valuable, not just for fauna, but especially flora.

I love this channel. Thank you Charles

Thank you for the video Charles. Also, adding a few trees around, as cover to create shades, would greatly help until a mud-clay deposit at the bottom. Just like in nature, nature is such a great teacher. I'm starting my food forest this year around my garden and will include a pound in the middle as well, i'm sure I will run into problems too haha. Not so easy without plastics, it takes time.

I built a pond 3 years ago. I use UV filter pumps to keep it clean, plus that small amount of heat has kept all my plants alive. Lily pad with 2 flowers Christmas day, 3 more open today. Never seen this before. 😳

I was toying on doing a pond on my land for raising ducks, but it is still a dream. well done Charles.

That's great, I've been curious about the pond. Hope it all seals up over time with dead organic growth being laid down, maybe that will help. I'm working on a second pond in my garden below one I put in many years ago to accept the overflow from the first pond. It too was for wildlife, mostly wanted the frogs and toads which I got many of and still do but ended up also with grey heron and snakes coming in to feed on those frogs, toads and tadpoles, it's quite amusing. Last year during the spring rains I started filling a tank above the garden 1000 litres with a small pump and hose from the pond for use later during those dry weeks mid summer. I think the way things are going here with climate change I'll be expanding my capacity to store by adding another tank next year. It certainly is challenging times for gardeners getting to know a constantly changing climate and how it effects your garden, it sure has here.

i love a pond for all the life you get

Grateful to you to consider wildlife's need for water resources and sharing your projects. I am inspired. Thank you.

A tip from a man that built 2 large ponds (but he has a creek nearby that runs through them and feeds them). He bought a minibagger, dug them out, then "dropped" the shovel of the minibager on the material to compact the loam (not sure if he even had clay). These ponds are also deeper, so I guess he got at more "sealing" material. That was enough for his ponds to hold the water. For the first filling up it was good to have the creek, but he would not be allowed to deplete that creek from its water, if he would lose too much in the ponds. I saw them when they were already well established (for 10 years or even longer). I do not know whether pond linings were even available for consumers then - but the proper high quality liners still cost a fortune (for two large ponds), and I think require very careful handling and installation. Tricky for large ponds. So the no-lining method was much cheaper and easier. He proudly told me that he was able to sell the minibagger after that with a small profit.

Brilliant to see an update on your pond , im sure one day you will get the water to stay

IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S AT LEAST HOLDING ENOUGH WATER TO BATH IN !!!!! THAT’S A POSITIVE !!!!!!

Oh I just love it! The wildflowers too are a joy. I only have a small pond but I look in it every day. It's totally frozen at the moment. I cant wait to see your pond come to life in Spring Charles. Even a puddle helps wildlife!

Beautiful and with pond and wildflowers it brings in butterflies and 🐝 bees🥰❤️

Congratulations Mr Dowding.

Yay! Pond update.

Thank you for the update. I have frequently wondered how you've faired with this project.

Even a pond that is only a part-time pond is a kind of a natural habitat that will improve bio diversity alot...

It'd be an idea to plant some cattails or reeds along the banks here Charles, aquatic plants have a tendency to form roots and debris that will help seal cracks. In the olden days my grandparents made ponds by digging a hole and filling it with leaves and soil in a lasagne like manner, the rotting leaves would eventually form a clay like substance which would create a natural pond. Cattails and reeds are also perfect for dragonflies and a whole host of other aquatic birds and insects, most of which are endangered due to habitat loss.

Lovely place.

Amazing pond looks great do so much for the wildlife

hi Charles,we moved house to a big garden with a pond. it has a liner but leaks and the lvl is never full so i planted up the rim of the pond with plants that are nativ.after 5 years it looks better and better with lots of wildlife.Deer are drinking from it birds ,todes frogs,amphibians ,waterbugs dragonfly you name it its all there and its a joy to have.we will not fix the liners and the water go up and down and its fine.

Fingers crossed it holds water this time Charles, it’s a wonderful project and a nice addition to your beautiful garden.

we did ours with a 8 wheeler muck away straight out of London, the clay worked a treat!

Hello from Ireland Charles! This is a great idea. I've long thought about how a pond could be added to my father's field with no natural water sourse and without a liner. I dislike the idea of a liner for large ponds as it unnecessarily adds plastic and may leak eventually. I came across Geoff Lawton before saying he was trying to gley a leaky dam using ducks. Their manure falls to the bottom sealing the pond eventually. I know some people have also used pigs to gley a pond. I always thought if I was to undertake it as a project I'd try get a few ducks, give them a home and in exchange try get them to seal a leaky pond for me.

Great job Brendan! 👏 I'm hoping to create a wildlife pond this year, so I'll look into your suggestion.

Great update! With inches and inches of rain coming off the Pacific, it’s good to hear the tale of you needing and getting rain for your pond pursuit. The story of learning to appreciate the complexity of how ponds are, wherever they are! What a wonderful yin/yang to go along with your work on Homeacres, looks like it will keep you young for a while yet. Happy January, may you soon hear the frogs, as I did here last night.

Gorgeous! 🎉 Tranquil❤ and peaceful! ❤This pond will gradually bring a village of insects and creatures. That is so joyful!🎉🎉🎉 Thank you for sharing!🙏

Hola Charles,que hermoso proyecto es realmente hermoso ver la preocupación de tu familia y tuya en el bienestar y equilibrio de la naturaleza ,muchas felicidades 🌷🌷🇨🇱

So happy to see you have water!!! :)

I have heard of a processes using green leaf sealed with plastic to begin fermentation creating colloidal organic material / clay. 1 gain of clay has 1000 times the surface area of sand thus water retention. Great video. Love this. 6" of bentonite clay no steeper than 30° discover permaculture with Geoff says for natural pond. Because evaporation is greater than precipitation in the summer it's going to be difficult to keep that pond full without shade or lifting the wind or top up. I would consider a raft /raft garden on the surface, vine trellis crop for shade / wind break with willow or bamboo.

I’ve been looking into building a pond without a liner and the overwhelming amount of information available says it’s not worthwhile. Thank you for providing this valuable information for those of us who want to reduce the use of plastic in the garden.

Bentonite is also used to encapsulate nuclear waste canisters in geological storage facilities! Versatile stuff

Personally I like no liner ponds only. They are natural, recharge water table, look nice, can grow water plants, support animals well.

My late father had pond maybe twice the size but it was clay ground so it held the water well but it was full of reeves, bullrush and lollies to help maintain the ecosystem and promote wild life. It was around 5ft-6ft in the middle and the extra depth is worth while.

Thanks for sharing Charles and very interesting! I have my own dam here in Australia which has a leak. Tried expensive polymer which didn't help. I am considering using bentonite clay so good to see your experience with it. I have ducks - they're not helping and like you I don't want pigs. The level goes up and down and the wildlife still enjoys it. It is 5m deep so we would need really dry conditions for it to empty. Slowly reeds and other plants are growing and I'm hoping over time that they may help to seal the holes. Anyway fingers crossed for you and me haha - thanks again!! Linda

Great follow up. You can also try to seal the soil compacting it with a plate compactor.

Hi Friend!👍

Сезонный пруд тоже неплохо! Дамба по периметру глубиной до водоупорного слоя (возможно при низкой уровне наклона поверхности - по всему периметру пруда). Тогда тело земли будет напитано влагой - вот основная цель.

Hopefully Charles it starts filling the cracks somehow and stays filled

Będzie pięknie - na pewno 💚

Best of luck with this project. I too want a small pond for wildlife. I have what I call a dry creek in my backyard. It flows constant and steady all year and then goes bone dry in July. With hardly any rain in the summertime it doesn’t flow proper again until late September. In my own mind I love the idea of having the pond fed by the creek, but I foresee the pond going dry when the creek goes dry too. Thanks for all the info.

My pond has a liner and was holed this year. By me when I was cleaning it I imagine. It has been a hive of life in the past, I'm getting a new liner - more plastic I'm afraid. I wouldn't be withour a pond though. I've three in total. I'd like more.

Primary Water. Call me crazy but all continents float. All those flowers, producing seeds. Great job. Looking good Charles. Thanks for sharing.

Great update ❤

Really happy for you, hopefully in the coming years, it’ll develop and become more established ❤😄👍, Always a pleasure and joy, Kind Regards David 👌👍

I have my fingers crossed for you! I've always loved ponds! I was so chuffed this year to find 2 lots of frog spawn in the one I dug here, as well as some dragonfly nymphs and greater diving beetles! Nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing nature appreciating your effort!

I've set up a few new ponds, my own and friends', with frogs. The way I did it was to put frogspawn, not tadpoles, in the pond. This results in the frogs returning, not the next year but the year after, to mate and spawn. Any tadpoles transferred to a new pond will return to the pond in which they hatched into tadpoles to breed. You will always get some frogspawn transferred on the feet of birds but if you want a good start it's best to put in some spawn, partially sitting on vegetation and in shallow water.

Danke für‘s teilen. Gruß aus der Eifel 🌻

Awesome!

Thank you so much for sharing about this project, your struggles and successes. This is looking good right now! Like many stated I do hope as well the pond will selfregulate. Bentonite sounds like such a great idea! We use it in winemaking and it has such interesting qualities! It really does form a paste! Maybe you just need a bit more of it. Looking forward to the developments this year!

Basically you created a wadi, a water infiltration system. The best to feed the ground water. I have one in my garden and sometimes it dries up, but eventhough it does, it has frogs and toads, dragonflies etc. Animal life adapts to these things so no worries. Just let nature do it`s thing.

I think fertilizing the pond in the warmer season (with animal manure) and growing duck weed could help, during the fast cycles some biomass would sink to the ground and seal it over time. maybe the same effect could be reached with well rotted, soaking wet wood particles. Rotted enough that it behaves like soil and will not swim up (testing needed). . Good soil on the clay layer would also be an option. Or just throwing heavy branches into the pond and watching what comes out of it. Fish would love it (they are sometimes imported as eggs in the feathers of water fowl). There would be a slow (very slow) anaerobic processing of wood / soil that could provide some sealing "mud". Duck weed takes up the nutrients very well and fast - so the small pond will not go anearobic. The duckweed (it floats on the surface and is easy to harvest) has to be removed on a regular base, every two to three days. In summer and with lots of nutrients it will regrow really fast. But it is very easy to harvest, and there seem to be special skimmers (Takota Coen made a video on that, he got one later, have not watched that). If duckweed is not used as fodder (it is excellent) then it would be good raw material for composting. It is rich in protein (read: nitrogen) and would complement shreddered wood in the compost heap. Frogs, insects, water snails, dragon flies do not mind if the water has more nutrients, it is just important that no algae bloom develops. Duckweed helps with that, it sucks the nutrients out of the water really fast, so it is able to outcompete algae. See videos of Takota Coen, a Canadian permuculture farmer who has such a pond (it is somewhat larger though than the pond here), no problem with water quality. He feeds manure into it if more nutrients are needed, so the water is not suited as drinking water or for swimming - but wildlife does not mind. A little solar power fountain could help, it adds oxygen. (Takota Coen does not have one, at least not when he made that video in 2019, but there was this extreme heat wave that also hit Canada). I wonder if horse manure etc. could be used to sustain the duckweed production. (Takota Coen fertilizes with a shovel of manure when the duckweed gets less productive, which can happen fast, it is a demanding plant when it comes to nutrients). Manure could be easily sourced ( horse stables etc.) What would happen if the manure contains aminopyralides ? Maybe it would suppress the growth of water plants as well ? Else it would be a good way to cycle such unuseable raw material through the pond to eventually get good and safe compost. (If manure is not an option, urine could be used as well, has also lots of nutrients - just sayin'). Or the litter from a pet shop (from hamster cages and the like ... if the animals have parasites those cannot complete their cycles. Such parasites are very host specific, so even if eggs, larvae survive in the compost and eventually get onto vegetables, they cannot live in humans. (that is the general rule, for instance if cow manure would be added to fertilize a pond or a field, it would be a good idea to not feed those plants to them. But every other animal would be good. The plentyful green material would also boost decomposition of brown material. As Charles tries to rely more on chipped wood to create compost. Duck weed is very good feed with a higher protein content than soy. A Canadian permaculture farmer (Takota Coen - see for instance the video: How We Raise Milkfed Pastured Pork .... ) grows some extra fodder for pigs and chickens (greens) for pigs and chickens. There is a small slope from the barn / feeding area to the pond - if it rains manure is washed out and runs into the pond He introduced duckweed into the pond after he read that it can be used as fodder (and would also prevent the pond from getting anaerobic because of too many nutrients).When it did not rain for 3 weeks he noticed that duck weed production declined - and he put a shovel of manure into the pond - and had plenty to harvest within a day.

I'm enjoying your pod experiment. Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

Great project, I wish you well with it. It will bring huge joy when you finally achieve it.

I have boggy pond on the back of my property that is dry in the summer. It is only a foot deep at it’s deepest. The pond is full of frogs, salamanders, and gardener snakes. This attracts wild ducks and other critters that feed on the tadpoles and other larvae. Be happy a dry pond in summer means less mosquitoes 😊

I built a slightly smaller pond than this a couple of years ago . It was about twenty yards from the buildings so harvested all the rain water that fell on them and channelled it into the pond via the gutters down pipe and a soil pipe running below ground and into the pond . We are on clay , so never used a liner , in fact I did not know what bentonite was until about five minutes ago . As you know summer 22 was exceptionally dry but still the pond held a few inches of water till the rain came . Did not know much about aquatic flora so just threw in whatever plants I could beg . It was completed in spring 21 and in spring 22 I counted ten lots of frog spawn in there . When I offered some of it for free on social media got flamed by people telling me this was illegal and would spread disease

Get some decent clay in and puddle it in, best chance to stay full. It reminds me of the old dew ponds that you rarely see anymore.

Wonder was your final word in this video, Charles; that is what I love about you and your channel- always exploring new interesting creative projects which push the envelope! Not settling for status quo, but striving always for more amazing productivity with realizations and explanations! Thank you sincerely!

So glad to see you got your hands on some bentonite. Trying to understand the nature of how bentonite swells and lubricates can be a lifelong pursuit. Speaking as a potter, the stuff is fantastic!